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Tier 3 · vertical & regional
Cristóbal Halffter
Person · male · Spain · Madrid · born 1930 · died 2021 · recording since 1969
Spanish composer (1930–2021)
Also known as Christobal Halffter · Cristóbal Halffter Jiménez-Encina · 克里斯托瓦尔·哈尔夫特
Timeline
15 events▣ Album 6✦ Award 6◦ Birth 1★ Debut release 1† Death 1
1930s
1960s
· Debut release
Debut release: Symposion / Secuencias / Líneas y puntos
First documented Album in the MusicBrainz discography.
source: musicbrainz
1980s
1990s
· Album
Album: Rachmaninov: Symphony no. 1 in D minor, op. 13 / Halffter: Tiento del primer tono y batalla imperial / Rachmaninov: Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini in A minor, op. 43
Album
source: musicbrainz
2000s
2010s
2020s
Biography
English biography347 words · 4 sectionssource: wikipedia-en · licence CC BY-SA 4.0 · revision 1370877168
Biography
Cristóbal Halffter Jiménez-Encina (24 March 1930 – 23 May 2021) was a Spanish classical composer. He was the nephew of two other composers, Rodolfo and Ernesto Halffter, and is regarded as the most important Spanish composer of the generation of composers designated the Generación del 51.
Early years
Halffter was born in Madrid, but in 1936 the family moved to Velbert, Germany, to escape the Spanish Civil War. They returned to Madrid in 1939, and Halftter studied with Conrado del Campo at the Madrid Royal Conservatory, graduating in 1951. He continued his studies, outside of his university education, with Alexandre Tansman and André Jolivet in Paris.
Career
In 1955, Halffter was appointed conductor of the Falla orchestra. He forged a successful career as composer and conductor, writing music which combined a traditional Spanish element with avant-garde techniques. His neoclassical Piano Concerto (1953) won the National Music Prize in 1954. In 1961 he became Professor of Composition at the Royal Conservatory of Madrid, where he became Director in 1964 but remained only until 1966. Among his notable pupils are Jean-Luc Darbellay, David Philip Hefti, and Javier Jacinto.
During the 1960s and 1970s, Halffter composed a number of works relating to human rights, including the 1968 choral work Yes, speak out, yes. In 1984 he served on the jury of the Paloma O'Shea International Piano Competition. He was awarded Spain's highest award for composition, the Premio Nacional de Música, in 1989. Also he has received the 2009 BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Contemporary Music.
Halffter's works include the opera Don Quijote (2000). His second opera, Lazarus, was premiered in 2008 at the Kiel Opera House to celebrate its centenary. A third opera, Schachnovelle, with a libretto by Wolfgang Haendeler after the eponymous novel by Stefan Zweig, was scheduled to premiere at the same house in May 2013.
Personal life and death
He was married to pianist María Manuela Caro until her death on 18 December 2017, with whom he had two sons and a daughter.
He died peacefully on 23 May 2021, at the age of 91, in Villafranca del Bierzo, province of León.
Discography & profile
Normalised profile
Percentiles are computed over every artist in the database, so a tier-3 artist can still sit in the 95th percentile on a single axis.
| Metric | Value | Percentile |
|---|---|---|
| Wikipedia language versions | 19 | 79.7th |
| Spotify monthly listeners | — | no data |
| Release groups in DB | 7 | 80.4th |
| Studio albums | 7 | 87.5th |
| Awards recorded | 6 | 97.7th |
| Timeline events | 15 | 91.2th |
| Recording span (years) | 48 | 89th |
| Genres | 4 | 84.7th |
Percentiles are computed at render time; missing values mean the artist has no data on that axis.
Discography (7 release groups · 7 studio albums)
Albums · 7
Symposion / Secuencias / Líneas y puntos
1969 · studio album
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Tracklist · 3 tracks · 53:35
ASymposion25:10B1Secuencias14:00B2Líneas y puntos14:25Concerto no. 2 pour violoncelle / Paráfrasis
1987 · studio album
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Tracklist · 4 tracks · 57:09
1Concerto pour violoncelle et orchestre no. 2 «No queda más que el silencio»: «El grito deja en el viento una sombra de ciprés»11:062Concerto pour violoncelle et orchestre no. 2 «No queda más que el silencio»: «Vine a este mundo con ojos y me voy sin ellos»16:363Concerto pour violoncelle et orchestre no. 2 «No queda más que el silencio»: «Si muero, dejad el balcón abierto»10:194Paráfrasis19:081996 · studio album
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Tracklist · 6 tracks · 1:15:50
1Symphony no. 1 in D minor, op. 13: I Grave - Allegro ma non troppo13:452Symphony no. 1 in D minor, op. 13: II Allegro animato7:343Symphony no. 1 in D minor, op. 13: III Larghetto9:104Symphony no. 1 in D minor, op. 13: IV Allegro con fuoco - Grave11:375Tiento del premer tono y Batalla Imperial10:126Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini for Piano and Orchestra, op. 4323:32Concierto para violín y orquesta nº 1 / Mural sonante
1997 · studio album
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Tracklist · 2 tracks · 55:47
1Concierto para violín y orquesta nº 132:532Mural sonante22:542015 · studio album
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Tracklist · 3 tracks · 1:01:12
1Líneas y puntos15:072Variaciones sobre la resonancia de un grito27:113Planto por las víctimas de la violencia18:542017 · studio album
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Tracklist · 17 tracks · 1:06:16
1Yemanjá Sonata: I. Largo con fantasía4:282Yemanjá Sonata: II. Larghetto doloroso5:083Yemanjá Sonata: III. Vivo con fuoco5:364Trimountain9:585Caprichos no. 12 (Abstractions of "El amor brujo" of Falla): I. Abstractions of "Canción del fuego fatuo"3:496Caprichos no. 12 (Abstractions of "El amor brujo" of Falla): II. Abstractions of "Pantomima"1:557Caprichos no. 12 (Abstractions of "El amor brujo" of Falla): III. Abstractions of "Danza del juego de amor"2:008Caprichos no. 12 (Abstractions of "El amor brujo" of Falla): IV. Abstractions of "Danza ritual del fuego"3:489El hombre que plantaba árboles…4:3110Espacio de guitarra8:3911Sweet as Candy (7 Flavors for Guitar): I. Mystery1:4612Sweet as Candy (7 Flavors for Guitar): II. Fire1:1713Sweet as Candy (7 Flavors for Guitar): III. Ocean2:0214Sweet as Candy (7 Flavors for Guitar): IV. Hillbilly1:4515Sweet as Candy (7 Flavors for Guitar): V. Flight1:5316Sweet as Candy (7 Flavors for Guitar): VI. Thriller3:2317Sweet as Candy (7 Flavors for Guitar): VII. Home, at last4:18— · studio album
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Tracklist · 4 tracks · 1:19:55
1Noche pasiva22:072Secuencias15:113Líneas y puntos14:484Symposion27:49
Stats & PK
Percentile within all 23,672 published artists.Put Cristóbal Halffter head-to-head →
| Metric | Value | Percentile |
|---|---|---|
| Wikipedia language versions | 19 | 79.7th |
| Spotify monthly listeners | — | no data |
| Release groups in DB | 7 | 80.4th |
| Studio albums | 7 | 87.5th |
| Awards recorded | 6 | 97.7th |
| Timeline events | 15 | 91.2th |
| Recording span (years) | 48 | 89th |
| Genres | 4 | 84.7th |
Awards & honours
| Year | Award | Category | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1981 | Gold Medal of Merit in the Fine Arts | won | |
| 1988 | Goethe Medal | won | |
| 1996 | honorary doctor of the University of Madrid Complutense | won | |
| 2009 | BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award | won | |
| 2014 | Culture and Science Award of the City of Kiel | won | |
| 2015 | Grand Cross of the Civil Order of Alfonso X the Wise | won |
Where this record comes from
aliases/urls—musicbrainz · CC0 · retrieved 10 October 2026
https://musicbrainz.org/artist/52bce034-77d2-4da6-a413-c41dd60fd661discography—musicbrainz · CC0 · retrieved 10 October 2026
https://musicbrainz.org/artist/52bce034-77d2-4da6-a413-c41dd60fd661core—wikidata · CC0 · retrieved 10 October 2026
https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q375388genre—wikidata · CC0 · retrieved 11 October 2026
https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q375388seed-list—wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0 · retrieved 10 October 2026
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crist%C3%B3bal_Halffterbiography—wikipedia-en · CC BY-SA 4.0 · retrieved 10 October 2026
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crist%C3%B3bal_Halffter
Why this artist is in the database
- List of composers by name
Tier rule: curated genre/region list
Image: no portrait (not displayed: the licence credit is missing)
Wikidata: Q375388 · MusicBrainz: 52bce034-77d2-4da6-a413-c41dd60fd661
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